5 Things to Avoid With Family Members

5 things to avoid with family members. So if you want to keep your family relationships as good as they can be and avoid completely losing your sanity and your family relationships, then avoid these 5 things with them. The first is don't go into business with family members. I think that, um, as most businesses fail anyway, then if the business is highly likely to fail and it fails with family members, you've ruined the business and you've ruined your family relationships. There are so many good people you can go into business with, or there are so many people that have skills and talents and traits different to you. Um, so don't go into business with family unless you want the business to go under and the family relationship to go under too. There will be assumptions and expectations with family members, there will be less accountability and more liberties taken. The second thing I would really avoid with, um, family is lending money to them. If you lend money to your family, then again, they will probably not take that as seriously as if it was money loaned from the bank. And, um, what happens when the loan goes wrong? What are you going to do, repossess them? What are you going to do, get a first charge, go legal on them? It's all just going to really put a big wedge in your family relationships. So don't lend money to them. Just learn to say no nicely and, um, maybe offer your support in other ways. You know, you can help by giving your time but not lending them money. And by the way, if you really want to help them, you could lend them money, but in your mind write it off. So if you lend them money and you hope to get it back and you do a proper arrangement, but in your mind you just write that off so that if they don't pay you back and they do take some liberties because you're a family member, you were okay with it and you almost converted it into a gift. So, um, yeah, a lot of you seem like you can relate to this, by the way, in the comments. So don't go into business with them, don't lend them money, and, and probably don't borrow money from them, um, unless you're absolutely nailed on that you will pay that money back. You know, too many people borrow money and they just don't take it seriously enough to pay it back. I see it time and time again, and they absolutely should do more, make more effort to pay back what they borrowed, even if they have to renegotiate the terms or have a longer loan and lower repayments. Okay, the third thing I would not do and really avoid with your family is taking any sides. You know, you might have a big family or a small family, and at times you can maybe want to take sides. I've actually seen— I'm going to whisper this because she might hear, but sometimes my wife has taken sides with my son. She tends to more take sides with my son than she does me, and that somewhat perturbs me. But look, don't take sides with your family members. Try and stay neutral and balanced. Exactly, Spencer says nepotism, baptism of failure. Look, I love being a business person and an entrepreneur. I really believe in being an entrepreneur, and you know, I've defied the odds on all of us entrepreneurs have defied the odds because apparently 90% of them fail in the first year and then 90% of them in the next 3 years. But, um, if you're going to lose one thing, make it be the business and not your family at the same time. Um, so don't take any sides. Try and stay neutral and balanced. That would be the third thing. Um, the fourth thing is to avoid with your family members is sharing your finances You know, sometimes you might do well and you might want to share the, the success and the happiness of the money you made, and that can make the family members a bit bitter or jealous. Or maybe that makes the family members want to ask you for money, or, oh, you should help me then if you're doing really well. And I wouldn't, where at all possible, share your financial results or deeper financial details with, you know, wider family members. I mean, you, you might want to with your husband or your wife for sure, that's up for, up for you. But I think it's always okay to have your own private finances as well. Like, if you, if you are married, it's also okay to have a— you have your own bank account and they have their own bank account as well, as you're having joint bank accounts where you can have a little bit of your own private money. Nothing wrong with that. And then the fifth thing, the last thing to never share with family members, is don't share secrets that other family members have shared. And this is a difficult one sometimes because if you've got children, you know, maybe your children share secrets with you but they don't want them to tell mummy or daddy, or, you know, you may feel like other family members need to know, but I always think it's good if someone tells you a secret to die with that secret and not to tell anyone, even if you feel that you're in some ways betraying someone else by not telling them. So any secrets that family members do share with you try and not share them with other family members. So I'd love to know what you think in the comments, by the way. I've just shared with you a really short video on 5 things to avoid with family members: going into business with them, lending money to them, or even borrowing from them, taking sides in any way— and of course you can have many family arguments, let's be honest— not sharing any income results or financial information with many of them, and then not sharing any secrets that other family members may have shared. Have you got any thoughts in your um, in the comments, let me know what you think. Um, I would love your thoughts. Now, um, if you want to have 3 hours of mentor masterminding with me, um, I've actually launched this Thursday 2 90-minute sessions where I'm going to give anyone who's a member of my new Telegram group free access to get, um, mentor mastermind sessions with me. And also, the best questions that I get I'm going to invite you to come to my offices, which have over 100 staff. I'll take you around hundreds of my properties, although they're in 3 big buildings, so I'll take you around 3 big buildings. Um, and I'll also buy you a lunch, and I'll maybe do that for about 3 of you. So if you like the idea of shadowing me for the day in my businesses and around my properties and coming out in one or two of my nice cars and, um, maybe doing a bit of business together, sitting in some of my meetings, um, then you need to be on this Zoom mastermind on Thursday. And to get into that You just need to join my new Telegram group. So I've just put a link in the comments to my new Telegram group. Yes, Robert, exactly, that's a good point. Um, also avoid sex with family members. This is the point Robert has made. Thank you for the advice. I can't believe I missed that one off my list, Robert. How did I miss that one off my list? Um, anyway, I'm trying to be serious, Robert. Um, I've just, um, recently launched a new Telegram group, and in that group I'm giving you free access to 3 hours of online business and sort of, um, general entrepreneurship, masterminding, mentoring, um, with me by joining the, um, Telegram group. The Zoom links are in there now. So if you like the idea of jumping on a Zoom mastermind and asking me anything you'd like to ask, and, um, you know, it's having a bit of a brainstorming session of all your challenges that are happening right now in your business and your life, just go and join my Telegram group, which I've just shared. And then the best 3 questions I get, um, this week in my Telegram group, you can come and shadow me for a day. We can have lunch. I've just shared the link again. Um, we can have lunch. I'll take you around some of my properties, maybe whiz around in one or two of my cars, um, come to the offices, which have over 100 staff, sit in some of my meetings, um, you know, maybe just get a bit of behind the scenes and us to get to know each other. Maybe we do a bit of business together, who knows. So that's it, just a nice short video for you today. Shared the Telegram group twice, come and join. Every week I do free giveaways in my new Telegram group, um, and I've done one-to-one calls, behind-the-scenes viewing of my podcasts, um, I'm giving away 20 grand in 10 days' time. 20 grand, uh, no, 15 grand, sorry, keep 5 for myself. Yeah, £15,000 I'm giving away, already given away £5,000, um, and many other benefits and bonuses. And it's all free as part of being in my Telegram group. So go and join that. I'll share the link one more time in the comments for you to go and join my new Telegram group. And let me know what you think about the things you should maybe avoid with family members: going into business, lending money, borrowing money, taking sides, sharing your income or too much about your finances. And then other secrets that other family members have shared. I think they're the things that you should avoid with family members. So let me know what you think in the comments. I'll see you in the Telegram group. Just a nice short one. Maybe you might want to share this actually, because it's, um, I think a lot of people do struggle with their family relationships, and they often don't know, um, you know, whether they should go into business, whether they should lend and borrow money, um, and you know, when there's division within the family how to, um, avoid that and keep good family relationships. So maybe this will help some people. So maybe you can hit the share button too. I'll see you in the Telegram group. The links are in the comments. And remember, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything.